Note: This website is now archived and refers to an earlier version of this couse. Please check the latest course website for current information.

Assignments

Homework

Homework sets will be posted on the course Canvas page.

Homework sets are due by class time on the date specified on the course schedule page and should be submitted through Canvas. There is no penalty for submissions made up to 24 hours after the deadline, but no credit for submissions made after 24 hours. Please e-mail the course instructor in the case of extenuating circumstances.

Homework sets will cover the following topics:

• Homework 1: Link layer
• Homework 2: Network layer
• Homework 3: Transport layer

You may discuss general approaches to the problems with others, but you must individually submit work that is your own.

Midterm exam

The midterm exam (open-book, open-notes) will be based on the core networking material covered in the first half of the course. The exam document will be posted on the course Canvas page.

You are welcome to consult the course textbook, course slides and lectures, and course notes, but you may not discuss any part of the exam with other students.

The midterm exam is due by class time on the date specified on the course schedule page and should be submitted through Canvas. There is no penalty for submissions made up to 48 hours after the deadline, but no credit for submissions made after 48 hours. Please e-mail the course instructor in the case of extenuating circumstances.

Paper presentations and discussions

We will be discussing influential classic and recent research papers from the networking community. You will be responsible for reviewing the papers and submitting your reviews to facilitate class discussion. You will also be responsible for presenting one of the papers and for leading the class discussion on it.

Paper sign-up

Paper presentation sign-up will be on a first-come, first-served basis. (Link to paper sign-up form posted on Canvas in an announcement.) If you have not selected a paper by the sign-up deadline, you will be assigned one of the remaining papers at random.

Paper reviews

For each paper, you should submit a short paper review via discussions on the course Canvas page. Each review (4-5 sentences at most) should discuss the following:

• What is the problem that the paper addresses?
• Why is this problem important? (Why should I care?)
• How does the paper solve the problem?
• What are the strength and weakness of the paper?
• Are there ways this paper could be extended, or are there questions that this paper leaves unanswered?

You should also submit at least one discussion question for consideration.

To give enough time for the paper presenter to prepare the paper’s presentation, paper reviews should be submitted on the Canvas discussion no later than 24 hours before the lecture day that the paper is presented.

Note: You are exempt from having to submit a paper review for the paper you are presenting and for the other paper presented during the same lecture as yours. Simply reply to the discussion posts of those papers with “I’m presenting during this lecture”.

Paper presenter

For your assigned paper presentation, you should prepare a 30-minute presentation that covers:

1. the key technical insights, methodologies, and contributions of the paper, as well as
2. a synthesis of the class discussion (based on the paper summaries).

There is no need to present every last detail of the paper (since everyone has already read it), but if there are particularly salient points that you want to draw attention to or background context that you want to add, you are welcome to do so!

Term project

The term project encompasses a significant portion of the course related to research. You may work on the project alone or in groups of two students. Groups of three students are permissible but require justification and are expected to complete additional work.

Term projects may take one of two approaches of reproducing research or novel research. Some questions to think about for each, which can be incorporated into your proposal:

• Reproducing research: Implement a protocol or system found in existing work
  • What is needed to implement the existing work? (e.g., emulation tools, testbed setups)
  • Which key results should be reproduced and why?
  • Which aspects of evaluation (e.g., different metrics, different parameters for existing metrics) are not evaluated in the work? Why might they be important? Would the key results change?
• Novel research: Work on an aspect of your research related to this course
  • How does this problem relate to networking?
  • What problem is this research trying to solve?
  • Why is this research problem important?
  • What is the novel insight compared to the current state of the art?
  • How should success be measured?
  • What is achievable within the course timeframe?

Proposal

Proposals must be approved by the course instructor before the project is started. It is required to meet with the course instructor to discuss this and strongly encouraged to meet prior to the proposal deadline so that you have as much time as possible to work on the project and so that you can avoid having to revise/resubmit the proposal later.

Proposals should be 1–2 pages and include:

• a set of project member(s),
• either:
  • a summary of the protocol, algorithm or technique to be implemented, or
  • the research problem to be explored,
• a proposed timeline, and
• a set of deliverables (e.g., code)

Midpoint report

Midpoint reports should be 1–2 pages and include:

• a summary of work completed up to this point,
• remaining work to be completed, and
• any potential roadblocks (and mitigation strategies)

Final presentation

Final presentations will be presented to the class near the end of the semester. More details will be announced later.

Final report

Final reports will be submitted to the instructor during the final exam week. More details will be announced later.